


The Alternate Last Samurai

by wonderfully_weird



Category: The Last Samurai
Genre: Other, Racebending Challenge, last samurai
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-11
Updated: 2010-06-11
Packaged: 2017-10-10 02:01:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/93982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderfully_weird/pseuds/wonderfully_weird
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Nathan Algren was half Japanese</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Alternate Last Samurai

PART ONE:

The summer came with  
Strange, white, men aboard large ships  
Mounted with weapons

Fear spreads through Edo  
The people hiding and the  
Warriors ready

The ship then makes port  
And off walks a tall white man:  
Commodore Perry

Aboard are others  
Men who thirst for women they  
Haven't seen for months

One, Nathan, a young  
Man with issues toward spirits  
Liquid and surreal

Night falls on that day  
Commodore's men prowl the streets  
In search of something…

Hitoro and Ai,  
Ride into Edo that night  
When noises are heard

Curious, Ai leaves,  
Horse saunters through alleyways.  
A man approaches

Then, Nathan, now drunk,  
Sees something he has not seen  
Since America

The girl grips the reins  
But the horse runs away from  
Beneath her body

She falls to the ground  
He grabs her collar and then  
Grabs her kimono

Hand over the mouth  
Pinned onto the earthen ground  
Muffled cries echo.

Hitoro finds Ai  
At dawn in the alleyway  
Naked as a babe

The news spreads like fear  
In the city of Edo:  
Samurai's child raped!

Meanwhile, Commodore  
Perry is furious with  
The crew; Nathan hides

One week passes by  
And the Commodore must leave  
He heads for China

Nathan confesses  
Dishonorably discharged  
And dies in China

Commodore Perry  
Returned in February  
1854

Ai has been pregnant  
She never wanted the child  
But it's too late now

In March, spring arrives  
And with it, a baby boy  
Ai dies that morning

Her father approaches  
An unassuming sailor  
Near the Edo Bay

Hitoro warned him  
As did other samurai  
Of consequences

"Kill the Gaijin boy,  
For he had killed your daughter,  
Or you'll disgrace us."

But he could never  
Forgive himself if he were  
To slaughter a child

So he approaches  
An unassuming sailor  
One of Perry's men

Algren, a blacksmith  
Makes weapons for the soldiers  
And not much else than that

He's now presented  
With something wrapped in rough cloth  
It squirms in his arms

"Do not mention me"   
Are the samurai's orders  
Algren is perplexed

 

PART TWO:

America now.  
The child, named Nathan, now lives  
In Minnesota

Algren makes sabers  
His wife makes the home and gives  
Nathan dirty looks

Village children look  
At Nathan and ask questions  
"What on earth is he?"

The minister sneers  
The townsfolk cast down their heads  
Even dogs steer clear.

"Bastard child," they hiss  
Whenever they find the chance  
To just speak their minds

No one can trust him  
No one seems to care for him  
Except for Algren

1861  
Algren mist fight in the war  
His wife's glad he's gone

Now, Nathan Algren  
Alone in Minnesota  
Must cure his heartache

Nathan plays with swords  
While Algren is off at war  
Somewhere in the South

 

Unbeknownst to him  
He is the legacy of  
The world's best swordsmen

1864  
A message comes to the house  
Bad news: Algren's dead.

No one can trust him  
No one seems to care for him  
Now Algren is gone

Nathan becomes sad  
Unsure of what to do now  
His frustration builds

Takes to hurting cows  
Smoking the cigarette and  
Defacing the church

1868  
Mrs. Algren can't take it  
"Get a job!" she snarls.

Young boy takes a pen  
And the boy joins the army  
Lies about his age

7th Calvary  
Closes in at Washita  
Nathan can't stand blood

Nathan befriends Grant  
The much older Irishman  
Resembles Algren

Five years quickly fly  
Algren, now a lieutenant   
He's only nineteen

Lieutenant Colonel  
Known as Bagley, took some two  
Decades to reach that

Ghosts haunt Nathan with  
Nightmares of dead Sioux people  
And of racial slurs

Nathan can't take it  
Takes to his father's old sins  
Finds comfort in booze

Nathan feels older  
In 1873  
And leaves the army

Three years drag Nathan  
Through San Francisco gun shows  
Feels like thirty years

Nathan then becomes  
A beggar for the bottle  
Zebulon watches

Nathan is fired  
In 1876  
'Cause too drunk to work

Colonel Bagley and  
A man named Omura then  
Give him an offer

Work for six months with  
The Japanese Army and  
Receive three years pay

With nothing to lose  
Nathan must take their offer  
His fate is now sealed

PART THREE:

Autumn in Japan  
Nathan arrives to glares like  
In Minnesota

Tokyo erupts.  
Mothers talk. Old men whisper.  
Children ask questions.

Nathan hears "Gaijin"  
Omura says not to worry  
It just means "stranger"

"Samurai Scandal"  
The word upon the streets that  
Nathan wants to know

Graham, an Englishman  
Talks about the samurai  
But not the scandal

Nathan trains the men  
They spit and curse at Nathan  
Just like in his town

Omura orders  
Nathan to take the soldiers  
Right by a railway

"There are samurai"  
He says. Nathan asks for aid  
Omura shakes head.

Leads the men through town  
As they head for the railway  
An old woman stares

She's an old mid-wife  
They exchange looks for a while  
She knows who he is

Nathan is alone  
With men that do not trust him  
In the dark, dense woods

"Now hold your fire"  
Orders Nathan from his horse  
A gunshot echoes

Demons rise from mist  
The army deserts Nathan  
Within the shadows

Nathan is alone  
Among a battalion   
Of samurai men

Arrow through the horse  
And the horse collapses right  
Beneath his body

Takes his gun and shoots  
But the samurai aren't fazed  
By the gun bullets

Nathan out of shots  
Finds a broken spear nearby  
And an angry man

His samurai sword  
Nearly slices Nathan's throat  
Spear came in handy

The samurai falls  
And bleeds to his death as a  
Tiger shows his face

Flag with white tiger  
On the spear that Nathan holds  
In his tired hands

Then, Katsumoto  
Mounts off of his horse, and walks  
Toward Nathan Algren

He recalls visions  
Of a white tiger that fought  
And killed a great foe

Nathan collapses  
Unto his knees, all while he's  
Panting like a dog  
Katsumoto then  
Spares the life of the Gaijin  
Takes him prisoner

PART FOUR:

Small Mountain Village  
Sons flock toward the samurai  
Save for two young ones

Katsumoto dumps  
Nathan into Taka's care  
She is resentful

Nathan discovers  
That the samurai he killed  
Had been her husband

Forced to stay in bed  
Nathan becomes paranoid  
And begs for sake

Taka won't comply  
And does so for his own good  
A mother's tough love

Her young sons worry  
That the gaijin will explode  
If he stays inside

It is winter now  
Snow blankets the small village  
Nathan walks outside

Children play outside  
Samurai stroll by the old  
Temple of Buddha

Nathan walks inside  
Finds Katsumoto in there  
Wants to learn his ways

He's given a sword  
Used by samurai students  
To hone their fighting

He practices with  
The boys in the village square  
Taka watches them

Ujio not pleased  
By the foreigner's efforts  
To learn bushido

Ujio decides  
To put Nathan I his place  
Fights him in a duel

The samurai cheer  
When Nathan is defeated  
Katsumoto sighs

Now, Ujio must  
Train Nathan against his will  
Beautiful karma

Nathan learns the way  
Of the sword, all while helping  
Taka with the house

A warrior that  
Does women's work is quite strange  
To the villagers

Then, at the temple  
On a cold, snowless morning  
Katsumoto waits

Nathan then arrives  
With many questions to ask  
Just like all young men

"Samurai Scandal:  
Tell me everything you know.  
Please, I beg of you."

Katsumoto turns  
To look in Nathan's young eyes  
And blue irises

Twenty-two years past  
Since that one fateful in  
An Edo alley

White man raped daughter  
Of a revered Samurai  
Forever tainted

 

A boy was then born  
Eight months later in the spring  
And was almost killed

Nathan hangs his head  
Tells Katsumoto of life  
In America

He wished to be dead  
With all the slurs he'd been thrown  
In both there and here

"Hitoro did, too,"  
Katsumoto told Nathan,  
"But then you killed him."

Nathan felt so old  
As Katsumoto told him  
Of this tainted tale

"You must choose, Nathan  
Between your mother's family  
Or your father's sin."

Nobutada comes  
And tells his father that a  
Play is performing

Nathan follows them  
The father and his young son  
Back to the village

The night then ensues  
With the laughter of people  
Though danger lurking

 

Suddenly, ninjas  
Try to kill Katsumoto  
But Nathan stops them

The ninjas run off  
The village can now be safe  
Despite the lost lives

Now the villagers  
No longer call him "Gaijin"  
Nathan earned their trust

PART FIVE:

The spring had arrived  
With tiny pink sakura  
Floating in the breeze

Nathan must return  
To Tokyo down below  
But is reluctant

He turns twenty-three  
As he rides into the base  
And finds different men

Bagley took over  
During Nathan's long absence  
The men are cocky

On the other side  
Katsumoto asks to see  
The young Emperor

Omura, fearful,  
Has the samurai captured  
And has him locked up

Nathan finds out  
Contacts Nobutada and  
Looks for Simon Graham   
The Three men enter  
Via lies, cheats, and some bribes  
To look for their man

Katsumoto's found  
His legs crossed and eyes shut tight  
Within a small room

Nobutada and  
Graham asked to leave the room  
Katsumoto speaks.

"Take Hitoro's sword  
And fight for the samurai.  
Avenge your mother."

The two men escape  
Only to discover that  
Nobutada's dead

The event saddens  
Katsumoto cannot grieve  
A battle awaits him

He looks at Nathan  
The young man has now found his  
Opportunity

The night falls quickly  
Two people hold each other:  
Nathan and Taka

He says "Don't Worry."  
Though Shiroyama awaits   
Him in the morning

Taka gives Nathan  
Hitoro's armor and  
A glistening sword  
PART SIX:

At Shiroyama  
Soldiers outnumber the others  
Over ten to one

As Bagley's barking  
Nathan tells Katsumoto  
Of the 300

So, the samurai  
Evade enemy gunshots  
Till they can fight back

The samurai shoot  
Their arrows toward the soldiers  
And start a fire

Omura takes out  
A much more vicious weapon  
Some new machine gins

And then, one by one,  
Samurai fall to the ground  
Katsumoto's hit

Nathan runs to him  
Against the falling masses  
Of killed samurai

Nathan can't stand blood  
Despite that it surrounds him  
Along with death stench

Katsumoto then  
Gives Nathan a knife and asks  
That he help him die

 

Against Omura  
And Colonel Bagley, soldiers  
Cease fire and bow down

Nathan takes the knife  
And fulfills Katsumoto's  
Final dying wish

Seppuku, it's called  
And tiny pink sakura  
Take his now freed soul

Emperor Meji  
Is presented a treaty  
The following day

Omura insists  
That he signs the new treaty  
With Americans

But then Nathan comes  
And gives Katsumoto's knife  
To the Emperor

Glances are exchanged  
Between the men in the room  
Meji shows his face

He offers the knife  
To Omura that instant  
"Kill yourself or leave."

PART SEVEN:

Nathan is unsure  
If he should go back or stay  
In his mother's land

 

Taka comes to him  
And says she'll go where he goes  
His choice is then made

He lives in Japan  
With Taka and her two sons  
And for many years

1889  
Nathan dies in his bedroom  
He was thirty-five

It was his liver,  
The doctor said to Taka.  
He had drunk too much.

Some decades later  
Simon is in London with  
Taka's eldest son

Within his hands is  
A journal that Nathan kept  
They read the pages

The two write a book  
Based on the entries they'd read  
And had it published

1907  
The book is for sale; Its Name:  
The Last Samurai


End file.
